Comments so far serve as a good indicator of why this is needed. For every argument against acting on climate change, half of them run along the misguided mindset of "IT'S SNOWING TODAY SO TAKE THAT, AL GORE I THOUGHT YOU WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SO SMART!!!"

EyeballKid:The oil, gas and coal companies that run Congress won't allow anybody to do much more.

Wait - I thought the pharmaceutical, health care, and Big Tobacco (tm) companies ran Congress, along with the military industrial complex....? Guess I didn't get the memo about which industries would be demonized this week.

gretzkyscores:Wait - I thought the pharmaceutical, health care, and Big Tobacco (tm) companies ran Congress, along with the military industrial complex....? Guess I didn't get the memo about which industries would be demonized this week.

I know it's a lot to take in, how various industries can use lobbying to get their way around legislative restrictions and regulations, but it's not some fantasy dreamed up by a writer. You can pinpoint to how easing up on regulations across the board in the 1990s resulted in the Dept. of Mineral and Mining Services slacking on its job, to the point where lobbyists where literally in bed with regulators, and eventually allowing colossal fark-ups like the BP Deepwater Horizon spill.

Or, take a look at how the single payer and public options plans were never discussed during the passage of the Affordable Care Act because of shills like Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln, Evan Bayh, Max Baucus, and Joe Lieberman, who held the concerns of the lobbies that bought them off in higher regard than those of their own constituents.

But, I'm sure this kind of research isn't quite up to your speed, so you just keep shouting, "Freedom" and eating things.

EyeballKid:I know it's a lot to take in, how various industries can use lobbying to get their way around legislative restrictions and regulations, but it's not some fantasy dreamed up by a writer. You can pinpoint to how easing up on regulations across the board in the 1990s resulted in the Dept. of Mineral and Mining Services slacking on its job, to the point where lobbyists where literally in bed with regulators, and eventually allowing colossal fark-ups like the BP Deepwater Horizon spill.

Or, take a look at how the single payer and public options plans were never discussed during the passage of the Affordable Care Act because of shills like Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln, Evan Bayh, Max Baucus, and Joe Lieberman, who held the concerns of the lobbies that bought them off in higher regard than those of their own constituents.

Gee, it's almost as if the people that make up congress and the people that write and enforce regulations are just as susceptable to greed and selfishness as those in the market that they supposedly have the magical ability to constrain.

But I'm sure we're just one more regulation away from total bliss, so you just keep on shouting "there ought to be a law", and smoking some killer pot, dude.

gretzkyscores:Gee, it's almost as if the people that make up congress and the people that write and enforce regulations are just as susceptable to greed and selfishness as those in the market that they supposedly have the magical ability to constrain.But I'm sure we're just one more regulation away from total bliss, so you just keep on shouting "there ought to be a law", and smoking some killer pot, dude.

Sure. And I heard people were driving over the speed limit. Therefore, we should get rid of all speed limits.

Accidentally flipped to Fox News yesterday and noticed that this seemed to be the outrage du jour for the day/moment. After watching a minute or two I couldn't begin to understand how they had the balls to whine about senators (allegedly) wasting time giving speeches when the number of Ted Cruzes in the world is still tragically greater than zero, so I dismissed it as more projection and flipped back to whatever I was watching.

Good to see (judging by the reply count of this thread) that not even the right wing trolls give enough of a fark about this to bother with.